before & after: colorful home redo

Today’s second and third Before & After projects celebrate pattern and color — they are both maximalist in the very best way. This first colorful home renovation comes from Aimee Daniels. Aimee is a lover of bold, brilliant textiles and all things vintage. Looking through her newly redecorated home, it’s clear that she had a knack for mixing prints and for choosing just the right complementary colors for the walls. I love the dark, dramatic rooms as much as the bright, wild ones, and I hope to someday have a similarly fearless method for achieving well-balanced eclecticism. Awesome job, Aimee! — Kate

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Read the full post after the jump . . .

Time: 5 years (doing little bits and rearranging over time)

Cost: each room cost less than $500

Basic Steps: I would describe my style as dark midcentury bohemian. Once I had the rhythm of my design down, I was able to paint the walls and slowly replace anything reserved or refined with something eccentric. It was like flipping through a magazine, adorning every face with a mustache. Each room has been placed in the past two years, with plants and décor shuffling from room to room weekly.

I am a scrappy girl and know a good bargain takes a lot of hunting. I try to visit my favorite thrift stores, antique stores and designer-discount stores regularly and ask store clerks when shipments come in. I also carry sanitizing wipes and measuring tape with me at all times. I use the wipes to test if something dirty is salvageable and measuring tape to guarantee a perfect fit. Each room was decorated and furnished for $500 or less. On my blog, I try to keep my followers informed of good deals, remodels and fabulous revamps of old, discarded pieces.

I achieved the look of my house by not being afraid of where it would take me. I have always bought what I love. I advise that when decorating/designing a room or home, start simple. I like to think of every room as an outfit. Every outfit must start with the basics: a dress, a white t-shirt and jeans, etc. If poorly accessorized, an outfit can become lost in the shuffle or speak louder than planned. Start with a dress you love: a couch or bedding that can be garnished accordingly. For me, I love blending patterns, fabrics and trends. — Aimee

Wow! At first I thought this post would be about just the patio. What a pleasant surprise. It’s so inspiring to see someone pull off such color and pattern with confidence. That dining room is heaven to me.

i think it’s really great that you painted the patio, and I love that there was color in the before AND the after. really great transformation… in a world of white on white on white this really is a happy place that i would love to say i did myself!

Nice colors/patterns on the interior. However, I agree w/Shannon re painting brick: once you have tried to *remove* paint from a brick or stone wall? You would never, ever paint brick again unless you planned on demolishing and discarding the brick the next time you wanted a change. Your only alternative to clean up painted brick is to sandblast it, equals difficult, expensive, and nigh impossible to get all the paint off. Plus the sandblasting gets all over everything else you own. It’s much better practice – especially when painting an exterior wall of a brick house as done on the patio here – to paint your desired colors on things less permanent, like a trellis, screen, panel, or other object that you can either affix to the brick wall or secure freestanding. (You can even layer such items as trellises one on top of another for the desired effect of hiding the brick.) If instead like here you painted the brick and then later decided to sell your house, the first thing your realtor will tell you to do to make your house appealing to buyers, is to get rid of the yellow paint — because not many potential buyers will have the same tastes as you do and no buyer will want to assume the costs of removing the paint themselves. Painted brick is a very expensive, labor-intensive, dirty re-do.

The entire makeover is awesome–I love the painted brick, you are very daring. I also painted a section of brick on the front of my house several years ago, we have extreme weather here but it is holding up well. I wanted it white and everyone said oh, no,
Don’t do it, but now the 3 neighbors have done it too! Gives a fresh new look to the houses, we are all happy with the clean appearance. Keep up the creative style.
Thank you….

CHERYL LEWIS, I used Valspar’s gloss concrete paint. HOWEVER, I am going to repaint the ground the same color using concrete GRIP paint soon. The gloss paint can get very slick if wet! You can grab this paint in Lowe’s paint section, right off the shelf!

the painted brick wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me if i were in the market for this house. even if it was, brick and stone can be sourced really inexpensively. why are design spongers so anti-paint all the time? i think it’s lovely.

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